Current Events > House GOP plan would cut Medicare, Medicaid to balance budget

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2018/06/19/house-gop-plan-would-cut-medicare-social-security-to-balance-budget/

House Republicans released a proposal Tuesday that would balance the budget in nine years but only by making large cuts to entitlement programs, including Medicare, that President Trump vowed not to touch.

The House Budget Committee is aiming to pass the blueprint this week, but that may be as far as it goes this midterm election year. It is not clear that GOP leaders will put the document on the House floor for a vote, and even if it were to pass the House, the budget would have little impact on actual spending levels.

Nonetheless the budget serves as an expression of Republicans priorities at a time of rapidly rising deficits and debt. Although the nations growing indebtedness has been exacerbated by the GOPs own policy decisions including the new tax law, which most analyses say will add at least $1 trillion to the debt Republicans on the Budget Committee said they felt a responsibility to put the nation on a sounder fiscal trajectory.

The time is now for our Congress to step up and confront the biggest challenge to our society, said House Budget Chairman Steve Womack (R-Ark.). There is not a bigger enemy on the domestic side than the debt and deficits.

The Republican budget confronts this enemy by taking a whack at entitlement spending. Lawmakers of both parties agree that spending that is not subject to Congresss annual appropriations process is becoming unsustainable. But Trump has largely taken it off the table by refusing to touch Medicare or Social Security, and Democrats have little interest in addressing it except as part of a larger deal including tax increases the sort of Grand Bargain that eluded President Barack Obama.

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The House Republican budget, titled A Brighter American Future, would remake Medicare by giving seniors the option of enrolling in private plans that compete with traditional Medicare, a system of competition designed to keep costs down but dismissed by critics as an effort to privatize the program. Along with other changes, the budget proposes to squeeze $537 billion out of Medicare over the next decade.

The budget would transform Medicaid, the federal-state health-care program for the poor, by limiting per capita payments or allowing states to turn it into a block-grant program the same approach House Republicans took in their legislation that passed last year to repeal the Affordable Care Act (the repeal effort died in the Senate, but the GOP budget assumes that the repeal takes place). It also proposes adding work requirements for certain adults enrolled in Medicaid. Changes to Medicaid and other health programs would account for $1.5 trillion in savings.

Social Security comes in for more modest cuts of $4 billion over the decade, which the budget projects could be reached by eliminating concurrent receipt of unemployment benefits and Social Security disability insurance.

The budget also proposes a number of other cost-saving measures, some of which could prove unpopular if implemented, such as adding more work requirements for food-stamp and welfare recipients and requiring federal employees including members of Congress to contribute more to their retirement plans. It assumes repeal of the Dodd-Frank Act that regulated banks after the financial crisis 10 years ago, something Congress recently rejected in passing a banking bill into law that softened some of the key provisions of Dodd-Frank but left its overall structures intact. And the budget proposes $230 billion in cuts from education and training programs, including consolidating student loan programs and reducing Pell Grant awards.

The budget also relies on rosy economic-growth projections and proposes using a budgetary mechanism to require other congressional committees to come up with a combined $302 billion in unspecified deficit reduction.

Overall, the partisan proposal is reminiscent of the budget released in 2011 by now-House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who was then the Budget Committee chairman and advanced a bold proposal attacking entitlements, slashing spending and creating lines of attack for Democrats once Ryan became Mitt Romneys vice presidential running mate on the GOP ticket the following year.

Democrats were quick to criticize the GOP proposal while contending that Republicans were opening themselves up to election-year attacks by releasing it at all.

The 2019 Republican budget scraps any sense of responsibility to the American people and any obligation to being honest, said Rep. John Yarmuth (Ky.), the top Democrat on the Budget Committee. Its repeal of the Affordable Care Act and extreme cuts to health care, retirement security, anti-poverty programs, education, infrastructure, and other critical investments are real and will inflict serious harm on American families.

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That doesn't seem to be enough to balance the budget. Just don't touch it.

I mean unless they are implementing single payer.

And also Pell grants? Wtf? Fuck off you evil bastards.
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Poor people: "Yes, fuck us baby, fuck us hard!"
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Good

It's about damn time we started slashing some of these bloated entitlement programs

It's time for some people to start paying their fair share
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They recently increased military funding.
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John_Galt posted...

https://imgur.com/a/MqSolg6

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hahahaa enjoy your tax cuts, MAGA people

Veterans wont be happy about this.
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It's so stupid to cut these programs when we're spending an ungodly amount in military. Most of the money going to our military is spent on defense contracts and R&D on things that end up not even getting used because the equipment is just too expensive. So we have trillion dollars worth of jets, vehicles, and weapons that just sit somewhere.

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Yeah, it was pretty obvious that this was the direction Republicans were going to go in to try to pay for the tax cuts
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It's tough. I don't think we can balance the budget without cutting entitlement programs like these. Even if we cut the military budget and raised taxes. Both of which we should probably also do.
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starv the beast

cut social security more please.

i mean gut the whole damn thing.
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Esrac posted...

It's tough. I don't think we can balance the budget without cutting entitlement programs like these. Even if we cut the military budget and raised taxes. Both of which we should probably also do.

sure we can.

raise taxes.

a lot.

also, we might want to consider why a "balanced budget" is a priority.
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"Me and several of mah family members rely on those, but dis pisses off da librulz and keeps all those no good _____s leeching off duh govment. Besides, they said dey love Jesus and guns so I support them no matter how much harder they make my life."
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Darkman124 posted...

Esrac posted...

It's tough. I don't think we can balance the budget without cutting entitlement programs like these. Even if we cut the military budget and raised taxes. Both of which we should probably also do.

sure we can.

raise taxes.

a lot.

also, we might want to consider why a "balanced budget" is a priority.

Obviously we should raise taxes too. I get why Republicans choose not to, but tax increases should be on the table. How much do you suppose the tax rates should go up and on which economic demographics?
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Are these actual cuts, or just slowed spending increases?
Seeing as this is being called "cuts" during a republican administration, I assume the latter.

BlueJester007 posted...

Veterans wont be happy about this.

I don't know anyone (trolls aren't people) who is actually happy about this.

It's not even vindicating to say 'I told you so,' because this was predicted like over two years ago by every government budgetary office and was so obvious the only people insisting this wouldn't happen (Fox News, Paul Ryan, McConnell, etc.) were benefiting from it and either getting paid in political capital or actual money.
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Washington Post posted...

(the repeal effort died in the Senate, but the GOP budget assumes that the repeal takes place)

Uh, what? Is this literally saying they are ignoring what the US is currently doing in order to balance the budget.

Esrac posted...

Obviously we should raise taxes too. I get why Republicans choose not to, but tax increases should be on the table. How much do you suppose the tax rates should go up and on which economic demographics?

i would guess we'd probably need a VAT, unfortunately, but also a return to the original corporate tax levels without a return to the existing cuts--functionally a significant tax hike on our largest corporations, while maintaining the regional tax system now put in place that prevents evasion (the one bright spot in the GOP plan).

we'd probably also need to kill the entire tax deduction for providing employee insurance and remove the requirement for employers to do it. that has been a tremendous drain on our resources much better spent on a public option.
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in 2015 there was $60 billion worth of medicare fraud

in a single year

just saiyan
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Esrac posted...

Obviously we should raise taxes too. I get why Republicans choose not to, but tax increases should be on the table. How much do you suppose the tax rates should go up and on which economic demographics?

I can't help but wonder why nobody has really looked at the concept of Laffer Curve to figure out an optimal rate.

FLUFFYGERM posted...

in 2015 there was $60 billion worth of medicare fraud

in a single year

just saiyan

we have no reason to trust fraud would be removed by any GOP effort

legitimate coverage removal seems more likely
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FLUFFYGERM posted...

in 2015 there was $60 billion worth of medicare fraud

in a single year

just saiyan

Ok. How much did they spend on medicare in total in 2015?

Darkman124 posted...

Esrac posted...

It's tough. I don't think we can balance the budget without cutting entitlement programs like these. Even if we cut the military budget and raised taxes. Both of which we should probably also do.

sure we can.

raise taxes.

a lot.

also, we might want to consider why a "balanced budget" is a priority.

bahahahahahhahaha

Darkman124 posted...

Esrac posted...

Obviously we should raise taxes too. I get why Republicans choose not to, but tax increases should be on the table. How much do you suppose the tax rates should go up and on which economic demographics?

i would guess we'd probably need a VAT, unfortunately, but also a return to the original corporate tax levels without a return to the existing cuts--functionally a significant tax hike on our largest corporations, while maintaining the regional tax system now put in place that prevents evasion (the one bright spot in the GOP plan).

we'd probably also need to kill the entire tax deduction for providing employee insurance and remove the requirement for employers to do it. that has been a tremendous drain on our resources much better spent on a public option.

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

"what? there's tens of billions in fraud per year? better raise taxes to astronomical rates so we can truly fuck the middle class!!!!"

easy to peddle bullshit taxation when you already have your mcmansion and 401k funded darkman.
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Darkman124 posted...

FLUFFYGERM posted...

in 2015 there was $60 billion worth of medicare fraud

in a single year

just saiyan

we have no reason to trust fraud would be removed by any GOP effort

legitimate coverage removal seems more likely

your only solution is to always "raise taxes a lot"

so i have no reason to trust that you actually care about fixing anything lmao

if they have that much bandwidth for that much fraud and waste, they need less funding. not more funding.
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FLUFFYGERM posted...

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

"what? there's tens of billions in fraud per year? better raise taxes to astronomical rates so we can truly f*** the middle class!!!!"

easy to peddle bulls*** taxation when you already have your mcmansion and 401k funded darkman.

what i'm suggesting would halve the value of my 401k.

FLUFFYGERM posted...

your only solution is to always "raise taxes a lot"

so i have no reason to trust that you actually care about fixing anything lmao

if they have that much bandwidth for that much fraud and waste, they need less funding. not more funding.

not how it works at all

and the GOP effort is overtly in bad faith. existence of fraud is justification for further cuts, so they have no motivation to address fraud.
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FLUFFYGERM posted...

in 2015 there was $60 billion worth of medicare fraud

in a single year

just saiyan

That was perpetrated by the doctors and not the patients, because the lack of socialized medicine does not allow the government to set prices for operations or place any responsibility on doctors to prove why a procedure was necessary.

Docs can and will scan you with an MRI 3 or 4 times "just to be safe" while not telling you that your insurance is being billed 10k per scan and then nobody understands why their premiums and deductables are so high.
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John_Galt posted...

Good

It's about damn time we started slashing some of these bloated entitlement programs

It's time for some people to start paying their fair share

i can stand medicare cuts but once they start social security massive cuts it's a problem because seniors and the disabled rely on it.
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kingdrake2 posted...

once they start social security massive cuts it's a problem because seniors

Oh well.

They got what they voted for. We need to gut it.
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FLUFFYGERM posted...

Darkman124 posted...

FLUFFYGERM posted...

in 2015 there was $60 billion worth of medicare fraud

in a single year

just saiyan

we have no reason to trust fraud would be removed by any GOP effort

legitimate coverage removal seems more likely

your only solution is to always "raise taxes a lot"

so i have no reason to trust that you actually care about fixing anything lmao

if they have that much bandwidth for that much fraud and waste, they need less funding. not more funding.

Does cutting a budget in half, also cut the fraud in half? I mean, it seems that's what you're implying when you want to cut it.

Obviously we should take care of fraud and money mismanagement. I'm just not confident that cutting a budget is the only or best way to do it.
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pretending itll hurt your wealth long term when we already know it won't is dishonest darkman.

you already made it financially, that's why youre fine with bullshit like "raise taxes a lot"

you just wanna keep others from thriving too. everything you stand for disproportionately hurts the middle class.

why dont we just seize all 401k funds and redistribute the wealth in them? sounds like a good tax to me. then everyone can just live on social security at 70. we'll raise taxes on investment accounts to 100% of the existing retirement fund total.
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John is that one character in steins gate, he's from the future.
where they cut medicare.
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emblem boy posted...

FLUFFYGERM posted...

Darkman124 posted...

FLUFFYGERM posted...

in 2015 there was $60 billion worth of medicare fraud

in a single year

just saiyan

we have no reason to trust fraud would be removed by any GOP effort

legitimate coverage removal seems more likely

your only solution is to always "raise taxes a lot"

so i have no reason to trust that you actually care about fixing anything lmao

if they have that much bandwidth for that much fraud and waste, they need less funding. not more funding.

Does cutting a budget in half, also cut the fraud in half? I mean, it seems that's what you're implying when you want to cut it.

Obviously we should take care of fraud and money mismanagement. I'm just not confident that cutting a budget is the only or best way to do it.

raising taxes to pump ever more money into the system sure as hell wont take care of fraud and waste

if the government cant learn to get by with less, we need to start electing a new government
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FLUFFYGERM posted...

why dont we just seize all 401k funds and redistribute the wealth in them?

at some point we will need to, since it's unlikely we'll institute common sense changes before we wind up in a financial crisis

and i'll support that too when it comes to that since it will be less bad than the alternatives

your accusations are meaningless and, as always, in bad faith
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Darkman please don't engage with proudclad. He doesn't seriously debate issues, he tries to troll people on them. It never looks good when people try to seriously engage him.
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Darkman124 posted...

FLUFFYGERM posted...

why dont we just seize all 401k funds and redistribute the wealth in them?

at some point we will need to, since it's unlikely we'll institute common sense changes before we wind up in a financial crisis

and i'll support that too when it comes to that since it will be less bad than the alternatives

your accusations are meaningless and, as always, in bad faith

lmfao remember the outrage when i made a topic saying not to put money into 401ks or other retirement funds since eventually leftists would want to seize them? jesus christ. youve completely gone off the rails yet im the one arguing in bad faith.
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FLUFFYGERM posted...

lmfao remember the outrage when i made a topic saying not to put money into 401ks or other retirement funds since eventually leftists would want to seize them? jesus christ. youve completely gone off the rails yet im the one arguing in bad faith.

That'll be a interesting day indeed when 'murrica! tries a negative interest rate.

FLUFFYGERM posted...

lmfao remember the outrage when i made a topic saying not to put money into 401ks or other retirement funds since eventually leftists would want to seize them? jesus christ. youve completely gone off the rails yet im the one arguing in bad faith.

you continue to argue in bad faith, but no one is listening

Questionmarktarius posted...

That'll be a interesting day indeed when 'murrica! tries a negative interest rate.

i hope that day never comes.
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kingdrake2 posted...

John is that one character in steins gate, he's from the future.
where they cut medicare.

No, he's a character from an Ayn Rand novel, itself the ideological lube with which Paul Ryan pleasures himself every evening.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/AtlasShrugged

And as for this alt, it's just a gimmick inspired by the character.
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he lied to me.... that bastard.
im fucking pissed off.
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FLUFFYGERM posted...

Darkman124 posted...

FLUFFYGERM posted...

why dont we just seize all 401k funds and redistribute the wealth in them?

at some point we will need to, since it's unlikely we'll institute common sense changes before we wind up in a financial crisis

and i'll support that too when it comes to that since it will be less bad than the alternatives

your accusations are meaningless and, as always, in bad faith

lmfao remember the outrage when i made a topic saying not to put money into 401ks or other retirement funds since eventually leftists would want to seize them? jesus christ. youve completely gone off the rails yet im the one arguing in bad faith.

@clearaflagrantj

remember what you said in that topic?
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FLUFFYGERM posted...

emblem boy posted...

FLUFFYGERM posted...

Darkman124 posted...

FLUFFYGERM posted...

in 2015 there was $60 billion worth of medicare fraud

in a single year

just saiyan

we have no reason to trust fraud would be removed by any GOP effort

legitimate coverage removal seems more likely

your only solution is to always "raise taxes a lot"

so i have no reason to trust that you actually care about fixing anything lmao

if they have that much bandwidth for that much fraud and waste, they need less funding. not more funding.

Does cutting a budget in half, also cut the fraud in half? I mean, it seems that's what you're implying when you want to cut it.

Obviously we should take care of fraud and money mismanagement. I'm just not confident that cutting a budget is the only or best way to do it.

raising taxes to pump ever more money into the system sure as hell wont take care of fraud and waste

if the government cant learn to get by with less, we need to start electing a new government

That doesn't really answer what I was talking about. That 60 billion is about 10% of Medicare.
If we cut the funding by half, and we see fraud stay at 10%, what then?

If we raised funding by half and fraud stayed at 10% percent, would you still say we need to cut funding?

Like, I'm mainly just saying fraud is something that needs to be identified and fixed, but I'm not sure why you think cutting funding is the only way to go about it.
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Questionmarktarius posted...

FLUFFYGERM posted...

lmfao remember the outrage when i made a topic saying not to put money into 401ks or other retirement funds since eventually leftists would want to seize them? jesus christ. youve completely gone off the rails yet im the one arguing in bad faith.

That'll be a interesting day indeed when 'murrica! tries a negative interest rate.

it'll be civil war and people marching up to every mcmansion in their area
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Darkman124 posted...

you continue to argue in bad faith, but no one is listening

you are arguing in bad faith, dude. when your solution is only ever "raise taxes a lot" without even a iota of mention of the tens in billions in yearly waste and fraud, you cant possibly say youre arguing in good faith.
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But in all seriousness, isn't this kind of bad timing for this type of thing?
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foreveraIone posted...

But in all seriousness, isn't this kind of bad timing for this type of thing?

it's an attempt to make use of an ultra-fragile congressional majority before it's wiped away

collins is highly unlikely to back it so it won't happen and i dont think they can do this with reconciliation anyway
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